Private school in Kings Langley ‘still unsafe’ for pupils six weeks after Ofsted finds series of weaknesses

Rudolph Steiner School Kings Langley

Published:06:00Wednesday 08 February 2017

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A private school which charges up to £9,520 annually has been slammed as ‘Inadequate’ by Ofsted six weeks after it was found to have ‘serious weaknesses’.

Safeguarding systems at Rudolph Steiner School Kings Langley are “not robust”, complaints have “not been addressed with sufficient rigour” and pupils are “not kept safe at all times”.

The school, which currently has no headteacher in place, was visited by Ofsted inspectors in November who found a range of independent school standards were not met – including those adjudged to have been met during a School Inspection Service inspection.

This week, a report published online shows how an unannounced visit by a team of Ofsted inspectors in December found a series of failures – just six weeks after the original report.

The school, where almost a third of pupils are identified as having special educational needs and/or disabilities, was rated Inadequate in four of six areas. The other two areas were rated as ‘Requires Improvement’.

The report said: “There are early signs that leaders and trustees are attempting to tackle the school’s weaknesses but, as yet, there is little impact.

“The quality of teaching is not consistently good. Teachers do not use assessment well to monitor pupils’ progress. Phonics is not taught well. Teachers’ performance is not managed robustly.

“Pupils in the primary phase do not make consistently good progress, linked to weak teaching. Too many pupils do the same work, which does not meet their needs.”

The school has since had an intensive safeguarding audit completed by Herts for Learning and staff have undergone extra training.

It said that record keeping systems have been ‘upgraded’ and the handling of complaints has been ‘markedly improved’.

A school spokesman said: “The school is of course very disappointed by this report, and takes its findings extremely seriously. In the report there are positive, but also challenging aspects.”

As part of a message to parents who may be concerned, the spokesman said: “We are confident that we are doing all we can to make our school a safe place for your children and have implemented advice and requirement relating to the inspection.”